Kirby Island Explosion
Kirby Island Explosion is a game released for the Xbox Syndicate and Nintendo Call. The game is developed by BiggestKirbyFanEver1994 Plot Kirby and Keeby are spending well-deserved rest and relaxation on a tropical island known as the Valley of Dreams. The island's inhabitants welcome the two with open arms, but one of them turns out to be their biggest fan, a Christmas elf named Felix Navidad. Felix tells the two that the Valley of Dreams is a popular vacation spot for insomniacs and that their dreams help the island prosper. That night, however, a mysterious force steals everyone's dreams. Without dream power, the island is in danger of exploding due to the presence of a huge volcano. Kirby and Keeby wake up from their peaceful slumber to see the inhabitants of the island in a panic. Felix tells them that the Dark Matter race has stolen everyone's dreams and deprived the island of its dream power. The two also learn of the island's volcano, which is set to erupt due to the absence of dream power keeping it inactive. Kirby and Keeby realize they are now in a race against time to rescue everyone, shut down the volcano, and restore the dream power back to the Valley of Dreams. Once all the inhabitants have been rescued, everyone tries to dream to shut off the volcano, which works. However, this is where Felix Navidad reveals his true colors; he turns out to have been the one to summon Dark Matter and steal the dreams to make himself powerful. When he realizes he made a big mistake, he turns over a new leaf and joins Kirby and Keeby. Together, the three take down Dark Matter and Zero (with Felix's knowledge of Kirby final boss battles). Gameplay Kirby Island Explosion is a side-scrolling platformer presented from a 2.5D perspective; the environments and characters are rendered in 3D but the gameplay takes place on a 2D plane. The player moves Kirby along this path; he can run left and right, jump, and float in the air. The path may often curve, overlap itself, or branch into different directions. The goal of the game is to rescue the Inhabitants of the Valley of Dreams before the island explodes. Each Inhabitant is trapped inside a dream-proof cage that prevents them from having dreams. By collecting the appropriate key, the player will be able to free the Inhabitant so they can dream again. When an Inhabitant sleeps, they give off Dream Power. Once all the Inhabitants have been freed, they will generate enough Dream Power to shut off the volcano before it erupts. Similar to The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for the Nintendo 64, Kirby Island Explosion imposes a time limit of three days (72 hours) in game-time, which is about 54 minutes in real time. An on-screen clock tracks the day and time. The player can return to 6:00 am of the first day by resetting the clock on Clock Cuckoo Land. If the player does not before the 72 hours expire, then the volcano will erupt and destroy the Valley of Dreams. Everything the player has accomplished during these three days will be lost and the game must be started over. A real-time countdown will begin when only 6 hours remain. However, returning to the first day saves the player's progress and major accomplishments permanently, such as the inhabitants the player has rescued. One of Kirby's trademark abilities, the inhale, has been significantly upgraded in this installment. In addition to inhaling enemies in front of him with the press of the B button, Kirby is now able to freely aim a cursor at scenery and objects of the foreground and background; when an object on a different plane is highlighted, the player can press B to inhale said object or, if Kirby already has an object inside of him, spit out a projectile at the obect. The game also introuduces a new ability for Kirby: the Bubble Breath. Pressing the Y button allows Kirby to blow a bubble. This mechanic is used to trap enemies in bubbles to be stored in the Copy Palette. Mix Abilities Mix Abilities make their first appearance in the series since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. There are a total of 48 base Copy Abilities (6 new, 42 returning) that can be combined with another ability to create a Mix Ability. This time, there are now over 200 combinations to choose from. All 28 Mix Abilities from Kirby 64 are featured in addition to several new Mix Abilities. The player can encase enemies in bubbles using Bubble Breath and store the ability in the Copy Palette, which previously only appeared in Kirby Squeak Squad. Then the player must combine 2 bubbles using the touch screen. The Copy Palette from Kirby Squeak Squad makes a return. By using the Wii U gamepad as a controller. players will be able to use the Bubble ability in Adventure mode, or Rolling Bubbles’ Bubble Wand in Whoopass Stew Z mode, to capture enemies in bubbles and store them in the palette for later. Some of the Copy Abilities or Food Items in the Copy Palette can be mixed with other bubbles to create new abilities or items (ex. the Maxim Tomato and 1-Up can be mixed together to create a Golden Tomato item). When playing the Nintendo Call version, players can flip to the other side of the Nintendo Call to access the Copy Palette from Kirby Squeak Squad. = |} Miracle Fruit Powers Nintendo Call exclusive features Multi-Screen Play Kirby Island Explosion takes full advantage of the Nintendo Call's Multi-Screen Play feature. If the game is played using two Nintendo Call systems or a Nintendo Share, it will show both the gameplay and Copy Palette on one side. In the 2 player mode, players can play on the same screen instead of having to look at their own screens. Textword Codes Another Nintendo Call exclusive feature is the new "textword" system, in which the player can open up the pause menu and text specific codes to unlock rare Copy Abilities, items, among other things. Codes can be earned by collecting treasure chests and bringing them to the end of a level. The list of codes are as follows: CAPTAIN WONDER SUPER PHANTOM DARK INCREDIBLE PROFESSOR IRON HAWK ARCHER STEEL BOLT ATOMIC TORCH SPACE MEGA TURBO FANTASTIC INVISIBLE NIGHT SILVER AQUA AMAZING GIANT ROCK POWER SHIELD ARROW JUSTICE THUNDER RIDER FALCON NINJA SPIDER BEAST BLADE HULK DOOM Levels Kirby Island Explosion is broken up into four levels, with a fifth unlockable level after all the previous worlds have been cleared. Due to the volcano posing a huge threat on the island, players are given the freedom to explore any of the four default levels in any order similarly to Mega Man. Felix Navidad, who claims to be Kirby's #1 fan, will appear in the overworld of a level, offering the player helpful tips and answer questions. * Rhino Rainforest * Evergreen Expedition * Sauropod Station * Toasted Tracks Pre-Release and Unused Content Development History BiggestKirbyFanEver1994 originally started development on a Kirby fan game over at Video Game Fanon Wiki under the working title Kirby's Galaxy Story. The game was to introduce a card-based ability system in which Kirby's Copy Abilities would be depicted as cards and be displayed in the HUD in form of a deck, similar to Angry Birds 2. In addition, the game was originally going to have a storybook setting and feature locations set in outer space (hence the sub title "Galaxy Story"). The icons for the Copy Abilities that would appear in the final product are the only leftover from this early iteration. When development of Kirby's Galaxy Story shifted over to Fantendo, it went under a new title: Kirby Valley of Dreams. One notable element that originated here but was not included in the finished product was the inclusion of characters from Kirby commercials; Dashing Super Guy from the North American commercial for Kirby's Dream Land would have appeared as a mid-boss. Unused Copy Abilities Four returning Copy Abilities were meant to make an appearance in Kirby Island Explosion; Metal, Bubble and Ghost from Kirby Squeak Squad and Copy from Kirby Super Star. Copy would have been the only base Copy Ability that couldn't be mixed with other Copy Abilities. The Bubble ability would have been the precursor to the Bubble Breath mechanic. Trivia * Most of the new Mix Abilities that appear are actually based on some Animal Friend alterations of Copy Abilities: ** The Hot Air Balloon, Octo Snowball, Octo Swing, Witch, and Spinning Top abilities are based on Chuchu's alterations of Burning, Ice, Stone, Clean and Parasol. * Despite being developed by BiggestKirbyFanEver1994, the idea to bring back the Mix Ability concept from Kirby 64 was Copy-Ability-Studios' own contribution to the game. * The first letter of the game's first four levels spell "R-E-S-T", which is a synonym for sleeping. * Similar to Kirby's Adventure, each ability has a limited moveset with only one or two moves. This is due to the immense number of Copy Abilities and Mix Abilities that appear. * At around 700 GB, this is the largest Xbox Syndicate game in terms of file size. As a result, the game will not receive a physical release. Gallery